The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, in one of the big stories the storm prevented us from reporting when it was announced yesterday. As noted by latimes.com, the deal includes ILM and most everything else from the Star Wars franchise to LucasArts, the company's gaming arm. The story focuses on plans to imbue Disney's theme parks with The Force and on plans to continue the Star Wars film series, but Forbes has word on the gaming implications of this, suggesting that this might make LucasArts' gaming efforts less focused, rather than more. They say Bob Iger indicated PC titles will likely be licensed, and "In its core division, Disney will likely be focusing on social and mobile games based around Star Wars." In the meantime, Star Wars 1313 is still on track, but they also note the complications of persuing other projects gamers dream about: "As for all those other dream titles? Itís more complicated than just Lucas being out of the picture. KOTOR 3 for example is under the license granted to EA/Bioware currently, and after the disaster of The Old Republic, itís hard to imagine them gambling on a game so similar, even if the old ones were classics."

Wildone wrote on Oct 31, 2012, 17:05:Yea its so dead Star Citizen raised over 2 million already..just dead int he mind of the console kiddies..

I didn't say it was dead, I said it's considered dead and niche...

=-Rigs-=

'Now we gave you a promise! And we are bound by that promise. And damn you for asking for it! And damn me for agreeing to it! And damn all of us to Hell because that is exactly where we're going!' -John Sheridan, 'And All My Dreams Torn Asunder', B5

Seriously though, this is a lot of hemming and hawing over nothing. The same kind of outcry was heard when Disney bought Marvel and what happened? They just let Marvel do it's own thing and got a gem of a film out of it.

Most folks generally seem to be in favor of the purchase.

So "couldn't possibly fuck it up more than Lucas" is favorable? Seems like a pretty low positivity bar to get over, but OK.

Of course that could have been part of his cunning plan. Shit all over it so that even the sale to a large media company looks like a good thing.

theyarecomingforyou wrote on Oct 31, 2012, 16:56:Pre-production for Episode VII has already started. They released the first photo from the set yesterday, where George Lucas denied reports that the new trilogy would be targeted at children.

I'm more worried about the fan-work community Star Wars enjoys. Disney is the company that's thrown copyright at preschools; on the one hand, maybe they won't have that attitude towards Star Wars since it's not their flagship characters. On the other hand, I wouldn't call it paranoid to save copies of Star Wars parodies and fan-films in case they drop the Cease and Desist hammer everywhere.

now I can finally get that Mickey mouse/Lego/Star Wars/Space Mountain/yoda speak/epic Pluto adventure_roleplaying_sex simulator that I have been having gas pains over and losing sleep over not being able to buy.

So when does Miley Cirus begin reading her script for her role as lead character in the new movie? Joke aside, and yes I was actually serious, I am glad that this is in the hands of ANYONE other than the locked pendant that Lucas became... OH SHIT I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING!

I'd bet money that the sooner the focus on prequel crap is dropped the faster the value of the IP increases. I don't think anyone would disagree that if EpIV 3D went up against EpI 3D in the same theater that the latter wouldn't even have crickets watching.

While cautiously optimistic, you guys have to remember that in the original press release, they said that the new movie of the new trilogy was already being worked on and they had a plot for a while. Add that to the statement from Lucas that if he DID make another trilogy, the story would be NOTHING like what came out in the books, it has me hoping that I'm just being paranoid. I'm also wondering what this does to the live-action Clone Wars tv show? Is it coming out still or was it cancelled?

As for LucasArts...I think it will be some time before we ever here about the possibility of an X-Wing/Tie Fighter revival. Disney has money to make up and they're going to do that by throwing anything out there that they know will sell barrels and buckets. Keep in mind, the space-sim genre is thought to be dead and a 'niche' genre. I don't see them changing that any time soon. Though, if Roberts has a good release of Star Citizen, they might change their minds. And since they say they will probably just license it out, they might even give it to Roberts to make...which I like and don't like in equal quantities...

The only thing we can do right now, unfortunately, is sit and wait...like usual...

=-Rigs-=

'Now we gave you a promise! And we are bound by that promise. And damn you for asking for it! And damn me for agreeing to it! And damn all of us to Hell because that is exactly where we're going!' -John Sheridan, 'And All My Dreams Torn Asunder', B5

I feel like Disney is getting this stuff for a bargain. I don't know how much stock is involved but the 4 billion in cash is a surprisingly low number. In the hands of the right people these IP's should be worth FAR more than that I think.

Lucas did an amazing job making the Star Wars and Indiana Jones IP look like shit in the past decade. I have to imagine this stuff was worth A LOT more before he started doing the clone wars stuff and Indiana Jones stuff.

For all I know he made more than enough to justify the drop in quality. The theaters were packed for each movie if I remember. I went and saw them...maybe he made more than enough to compensate for the drop in value of his company/companies. Plus he did those special editions...and I went and saw all those...didn't I? I can't remember, pretty sure I did.

I wonder if that Episode I 3d release was the straw that broke the camels back? I don't know anyone that saw that and I have to imagine that is kind of telling for Lucas.

I feel like we should be thanking him (Lucas) for selling. It's painful to see such a powerful and amazing franchise get such poor leadership.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Episode 7. Assuming this is the Heir to the empire trilogy I'll be very interested to see more details. If it's not and they're just making a new story I'd say we're in for more of the same.

That Zahn trilogy was amazing. So much awesome stuff in that. Put some money into a decent team that can do the story justice.

What do you do with all the people working at Lucasfilm/Arts right now? If you were serious about getting these IP's strong again it's hard not to just fire everyone and start over. Hire back people who you think will be good but I have to imagine those organizations are a product of Lucas' choices over the past 10 years.